The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Lawyers Are Good At Writing Letters

Say what you will about lawyers. They can write letters! Clear, concise letters, with a bit of bold in the right places. They are saying "leave the folks alone til they get due process," though in reality the family I know best just signed a lease for public housing on Friday. After 5 years of "homelessness" at 60 Clarkson. To say that she and her kids are ecstatic doesn't quite capture it. In a couple weeks, they will have a home. They don't have any furniture, but as she says they'll find it bit by bit. And they will. They're survivors. One can only hope that with some stability she can get through nursing school.

You know, I have a sister in law with very much the same situation - six
kids, no job, living in Texas. The conditions that led to that
single-mom situation are besides the point. Suffice to say there's some
odd mental twists that lead an intelligent person into that situation. But to
call it her fault would be a sick stretch. Shit happens. So you can make
generalizations about the homeless population, or single moms with many
children from multiple fathers, or people who "milk the system." But in reality, people deserve a chance, a place to live, a meal, and health care. In the world's richest society, where the vast majority of our citizens are self-supporting and the majority of our taxes go to a military industrial complex, I think it's hardly a hardship to take care of those in need. How we do that, and the way we prepare people for self-sufficiency, determines what sort of society we are.